Reviews

The Life of Galileo

By Bertolt Brecht, translated by Mark Ravenhill. WAAPA Second Year Acting Students. Directed by Michael McCall. The Dolphin Theatre, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA. Nov 9-15, 2023

Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo was presented by WAAPA Second Year Acting Students and was designed and crewed by WAAPA Production and Design Students. Performing off the Edith Cowan campus at the University of Western Australia’s Dolphin Theatre, this was a strong ensemble production that told a fascinating story.

Coranderrk

By Andrea James and Giordano Nanni. Directed by Rick Brayford. Enright Studio, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley, WA. Nov 9-15, 2023

Coranderrk is the graduating production for students of WAAPA’s Aboriginal Theatre Course and designed and crewed by WAAPA Production and Design Students. Superbly performed and sensitively acted, the standard of this performance belies the fact that this is a one-year course.

The Marriage of Figaro

By Mozart. State Opera South Australia. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Wakefield St, Adelaide. Nov 16 – 25, 2023

I have never been a big fan of updating classic operas to the present day, that is, until now. Thanks to director Nicholas Cannon, State Opera have presented a relevant, accessible and highly enjoyable modern take of The Marriage of Figaro!

Even after updating, the story is much the same. The Count has his eye on Susanna, Figaro’s bride-to-be. She might just be a servant, but Susanna’s clever and determined he won’t have his way, especially on their wedding day!

Treasure Island

By Robert Louis Stephenson, adapted by Bryony Lavery, presented by Adelaide Repertory Theatre. Arts Theatre, Adelaide. 16-25 November 2023

Robert Louis Stephenson’s Treasure Island has long been many people’s source of all things pirate: ‘X marks the spot’, one-legged bad guys, and shoulder-sitting parrots are archetypes first presented by Stephenson in his ‘boys own’ adventures. This production is brought to the Adelaide stage by The Rep and director Megan Dansie.

Urinetown

Book and lyrics by Greg Kotis. Music and lyrics by Mark Hollman. Griffith University. Queensland Academy of Excellence in Musical Theatre. Burke Street Studio Theatre. 14 – 18 November 2023

Burke Street Studio Theatre was transformed into a dystopian future for the setting of Queensland Academy of Excellence in Musical Theatre’s second year student production of Urinetown. The unassuming theatre provided the perfect venue for the students to showcase their talents and skills honed over their time at the Academy.

ButohBAR Out of Order

Co-created by Yumi Umiumare & ButohOUT! Ensemble. Industrial School, Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers St, Abbotsford. 15-19 November 2023.

As an avant-garde and experimental Japanese theatre tradition, Butoh exhibits a great deal of post-war and postmodern dystopian anxieties. ButohBAR visits some very dark psychological places and spaces and this is where the anti-aesthetics is particularly at work in this production. The stage, set and costume design deliver the characteristic anguish of this radically challenging form of theatre. The clash of colours, styles, movement and textures is striking and sometimes jarring.

The Master & Margarita

Adapted and directed by Eamon Flack, from the book by Mikhail Bulgakov. Belvoir St Theatre. Nov 11 to Dec 10, 2023

‘Twould be wonderful if Mikhail Bulgakov could be spirited into the Belvoir St Theatre to the see what Eamon Flack, his cast, and a host of creatives have made of his book The Master and Margarita. He’d see all his characters – the Devil, his assistant, a naked witch, a huge black, talking cat with a liking for vodka, an assassin, a poet, a writer, Christ and Pontius Pilate – corralled together in a riotous romp that’s mad and magical – and as mischievous as Bulgakov meant it to be!

Wildschut & Brauss

Musica Viva Australia. Adelaide Town Hall, Adelaide. November 15, 2023. Touring.

Musica Viva Australia are to be commended for importing artists of the calibre of violinist Noa Wildschut and pianist Elisabeth Brauss. Direct from the concert halls of Europe, they present a program, Wildschut & Brauss that has something for everyone, young or old, a music buff or a novice.

Welcome To Your New Life

By Anna Goldsworthy. State Theatre Company South Australia. Directed by Shannon Rush. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. 10-25 November, 2023.

”Why have we kept doing this?” Anna, the anguished mother in labour cries. The audience, likewise, ponders the same question. Childbirth and motherhood can be such a traumatic assault on the senses and yet, we go back for more.

The Wharf Revue: Pride in Prejudice

By Jonathan Biggins and Drew Forsythe. Soft Tread Productions. Director Andrew Worboys. Seymour Centre. 8 November - 17 December, 2023 and touring.

Jonathan Biggins and Drew Forsythe are looking back on another year with their usual perspicacious percipience, pertinent parodies and just a little poignant plaintiveness! They satirise prominent politicians with punchy pride, bi-partisan prejudice and intense irreverent irony. And if you find that little lot of alliteration laborious imagine writing a whole sketch of it! In fact, imagine planning a program of sketches satirising people and politics – and performing them perfectly!  

Ok! Ok! I’ll stop!

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